ON THE EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF RESEARCH IN GREEK HEIS USING BIBLIOMETRIC INDICES

For the assessment of the quality of research and the scientific contribution of Higher Education Ins titutes (HEIs) and their research groups, a variety of approaches have be en proposed, including expert based qualitative approaches, such as evaluation by widely accepted researchers in specific disciplines with broad recognition in the scientific community (peer-review methodology). However, th e rapid Internet proliferation and the easier access to scientific databases, offers an alter native approach to assessing the scientific outcome of a researcher or a Faculty. Nowadays, there seems to be a movem ent towards bibliometric measures and indices. In this paper, the resear ch output of four Engineering Departments, one being part of the School of Pedagogical & Technological Education (ASPETE) and the three others belonging to Technological Educational Institutions (TEIs) is evalu ated by using bibliometric indices such as the total and average publications and citations and the mean h- index. For comparison purposes the evaluation also includes two Eng. Depts; one from a University and the other from a Higher Military Educational Institute. It is concluded t hat despite the inherent limitations of bibliometrics the viability of the adopted method for measuring and evaluating the scientific performance of higher education departments is effective in terms of Robustness, Validity, Functionality and Cost and time effectiveness. The useful results obtained suggest that such an approach could be used in a broader context.